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The FreeBSD Project is pleased to participate as a mentoring organization in the Google Summer of Code 2008. This program funds students to contribute to an open source project over the summer break. We have had over 50 successful students working on FreeBSD as part of this program in 2005, 2006, and 2007.

Past Student Projects

For a complete list of student projects from previous years, visit:

See also our wiki pages for student projects [2007, 2006, and 2005].

Example Proposal Ideas

The following example project ideas are a subset of the general FreeBSD Project Ideas list that we think are the most suitable for Summer of Code projects.

  • ./ideas/index.html#p-

For additional ideas about upcoming development projects in FreeBSD, take a look at recent Developer Status Reports.

Mentors

A number of FreeBSD committers are willing to mentor students this year. A good place to start is the 'Technical contacts' listed with the example projects on the Ideas page. In addition to those specific projects, the following mentors are willing to work with students in any of the broad areas listed below.

Coming soon.

Proposal Guidelines

Students are responsible for writing a proposal and submitting it to Google before the application deadline. The following outline was adapted from the Perl Foundation open source proposal HOWTO. A strong proposal will include:

  • Name
  • Email
  • Project Title
  • Possible Mentor (optional)
  • Benefits to the FreeBSD Community - a good project will not just be fun to work on, but also generally useful to others.
  • Deliverables - It is very important to list quantifiable results here e.g.
    • "Improve X modules in ways Y and Z."
    • "Write 3 new man pages for the new interfaces."
    • "Improve test coverage by writing X more unit/regression tests."
    • "Improve performance in FOO by X%."
  • Project Schedule - How long will the project take? When can you begin work?
  • Availability - How many hours per week can you spend working on this? What other obligations do you have this summer?
  • Bio - Who are you? What makes you the best person to work on this project?

Infrastructure Provided to Students

In previous years, the FreeBSD Project provided access to the FreeBSD Perforce revision control infrastructure in order to facilitate student collaboration, provide public access and archiving for the on-going student projects, and to help mentors and the community monitor on-going work. It is expected that students participating in future programs will be offered the same facilities. Students will also be asked to maintain wiki pages on their on-going projects. In the past, e-mail, IRC, and instant messaging have proven popular among students and mentors, and students participating in the FreeBSD summer program are encouraged to use these and other electronic communication mechanisms to become active in the community.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Am I eligible?

    Please see the Google Summer of Code 2008 FAQ for all questions about eligibility.

  • Where can I find more information about being a student or mentor in this program?

    Please see the program wiki here.

  • When does the application period begin?

    March 24, 2008.

  • When does the application period end?

    March 31, 2008 5:00PM PDT (April 1 0:00 UTC). Note, however that you should apply several days before the deadline in case your potential mentor wants to clarify anything in your application or offer additional guidance.

  • Where do I send my proposal?

    Proposals must be sent directly to Google when the application period begins.

  • What projects were completed successfully by students last summer?

    Please see the 2007 FreeBSD Summer of Code page, as well as older project pages from 2006 and 2005 for a list of the completed projects from previous years.